Cathal BarryBasketball superstar Kobe Bryant has spoken of how his Catholic faith helped him through a particularly difficult part of his professional career.
In 2003, a sexual assault case was brought against the Los Angeles Lakers player. A woman accused Bryant of raping her, but the case was dropped after she refused to testify. A civil suit was later settled and Bryant publicly apologised, but admitted no guilt.
In a recent interview, Bryant revealed a conversation with a Catholic priest “really helped” him during the process. “Was I afraid of going to jail? Yes… I was terrified. The one thing that really helped me during that process — I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic — was talking to a priest.
“It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ‘Did you do it?’ And I say, ‘Of course not.’ Then he asks, ‘Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ‘Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point,” he said.